Sarajevo – Ploče railway line

The title of this article is ambiguous. The narrow-gauge line Sarajevo – Metković (–Ploče), which existed until 1966, is described in the article Narentabahn .

Sarajevo – Ploce
Route number :	11 (ŽFBH) / M304 (HŽ)
Course book range :	none (ŽFBH) / 74 (HŽ)
Route length:	194.6 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Power system :	25 kV 50 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	25  ‰
Top speed:	70 (ŽFBH) / 100 (HŽ)  km / h
Legend 0.0 Sarajevo 538.5  m. i. J. 0.0 Sarajevo Teretna (freight yard) 531.7  m. i. J. 2.6 4.4 Alipašin must 512.4  m. i. J. from and to Šamac 7.3 Miljacka rasp (Abzw Miljacka) 498.5  m. i. J. Miljacka 8.8 Ilidža Željeznica Bosna 12.5 Blažuj 504.4  m. i. J. 15.7 Binježevo 19.2 Hadžići 558.8  m. i. J. 23.0 Zovik 26.2 Pazarić 645.2  m. i. J. 29.8 Tarčin 34.8 Raštelica 722.5  m. i. J. 41.4 Bradina 753.1  m. i. J. 3 × 46.0 Plješevac 3 × 49.1 Degree 607.5  m. i. J. 3 × 57.9 Ovčari 3 × 66.6 Konjic 283  m. i. J. Neretva M 17 72.9 Čelebić 282.3  m. i. J. 79.3 Ostrožac 275  m. i. J. 3 × 85.7 Jablanica grad Neretva M 17 88.0 Jablanica n / N 201.7  m. i. J. 5 × 96.3 Grabovica 160.1  m. i. J. 100.3 Čepi 102.7 Drežnica stara Drežanka 107.0 Drežnica 128  m. i. J. 2 × 113.0 Vituša 2 × 116.8 Raška gora 121.2  m. i. J. 120.1 Vojno connections 125.8 Raštani 75.2  m. i. J. connections Neretva Feeder to the M 17 connection 128.8 Mostar 71.5  m. i. J. 133.5 Mostar teretna 50  m. i. J. M 6.1 M 17 Neretva connection 139.3 Bačevići 36.6  m. i. J. 141.3 Buna 143.0 Maloševići Feeder to the M 17 148.4 Žitomislići 24.4  m. i. J. 153.5 Kručevići 155.6 Šurmanci 17.2  m. i. J. 2 × connection 163.1 Čapljina 9  m. i. J. 164.9 Struge Trebižat 167.6 Gabela (formerly Bf.) former narrow-gauge railway to Zelenika 170.390 170.421 State border Bosnia and Herzegovina / Croatia Industrial tracks 171.298 Metković 5.1  m. i. J. Norino 176.103 Kula Norinska 177.486 Krvavac 179.862 Opuzen 4  m. i. J. 183.265 Komin 185.927 Banya 188.568 Rogotin 4.3  m. i. J. 191.693 Stablina to the port of Ploče 193,152 Ploče 1.8  m. i. J.

The Sarajevo – Ploče railway is a railway line in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia . The single-track line is electrified throughout and is part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor 5c from Ploče via Sarajevo and Osijek to Budapest .

The route is 194.6 km long and has 27 stations (as of 1975), 71 bridges with a total length of 3.7 km and 106 tunnels with a total length of 36.6 km. Of these, 46 tunnels and 21 bridges alone are on the section between Bradina and Konjic . The longest tunnel on the route is the Ivan summit tunnel with a length of 3.23 km. The Bradina – Konjic section has the highest gradient of 25 per thousand.

The maximum permitted speed in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian section is 70 km / h for passenger traffic and 50 km / h for goods traffic. 100 km / h is permitted on the Croatian section. The entire route is assigned to route class D4.

history

Construction costs of the individual sections of the Sarajevo – Ploče line.

Forerunner of normalspurigen Sarajevo-Ploče railway is put into operation in 1891, Bosnian gauge executed Narentabahn . Since this no longer met the traffic needs of socialist Yugoslavia , it was gradually converted to standard gauge by the Yugoslav State Railways from 1963 onwards , and most of it was re-routed. Due to the construction of the Neretva power plants , the route of the previous narrow-gauge railway was later flooded in several places. From November 5 to 25, 1966, the Sarajevo – Ploče railway was closed, during which time the crossing points and intersections between the new and old railway lines were removed. With festive events in Sarajevo, Mostar and Ploče as well as two special trains, the standard-gauge line was officially opened on November 26th and 27th, 1966. At that time, the construction work was not yet fully completed. a. regarding platforms, safety technology and the planned Mostar freight station. Today's infrastructure operator ŽFBH states that the line will go into operation on October 1, 1968. The route electrification with 25 kV AC voltage at 50 Hz was completed in 1969.

Development of freight and passenger traffic 1968–1988 in the Ploče train station (black) and in the Ploče port (red)

After completion of the standard-gauge railway line Sarajevo – Ploče, the annual freight traffic from 1968 to 1988 in the port station Ploče more than quadrupled from 956,000 to 4,325,000 t. However, during the same period, passenger traffic at Ploče station fell from 436,000 passengers in 1968 to 167,000 passengers in 1988. In freight transport, bulk goods dominated at that time, primarily coal from the Soviet Union for industrial locations such as Zenica in the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and grain from the USA for the food industry in Metković . Liquid products for Energopetrol in Sarajevo and, to a lesser extent, soy as transit goods were also transported from the port of Ploče to Hungary via this railway line . In the opposite direction, mainly metallurgical products and wood for export to the port of Ploče were transported. The import of goods via the port of Ploče and their onward transport by rail has always been significantly higher than the export and transit traffic since the start of the normal-gauge railway line. In the years before, when the ports in Ploče and Metković were only connected to the railway network via the narrow-gauge line, exports exceeded imports considerably - albeit at a significantly lower level overall.

With Croatia's independence in 1991, the Croatian section was transferred to the newly founded railway company Hrvatske željeznice (HŽ), the part located in Bosnia and Herzegovina later to Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine (ŽFBH). Significant parts of the line were damaged during the Bosnian War , but gradually rebuilt after the war.

Transport offer

Route profile, maximum speed and incline.

In the summer timetable of the war year 1994, seven cross-border train pairs between Čapljina and Metković were listed in the timetable of the HŽ, five of which were extended to and from Ploče. According to the timetable, the Struge and Gabela stations between the two border stations were also served at that time.

In the 2013 annual timetable, there was only one pair of express trains per day on the entire route from Sarajevo to Ploče. This offer was supplemented by another pair of express trains between Sarajevo and Čapljina and several pairs of trains for local rail transport between Sarajevo and Konjic and between Metković and Ploče.

With the 2013/2014 timetable change, cross-border passenger traffic was discontinued. Since then, the two daily pairs of express trains have only run within Bosnia and Herzegovina between Sarajevo, Mostar and Čapljina. You need around 3¼ hours for the 160 km long route. There are also three pairs of inner-Bosnian trains between Sarajevo and Konjic, which serve all stops on the way and take just under 1¾ hours for this section.

Passenger traffic on the Croatian section between Ploče and Metković has been suspended since April 24, 2014. Since June 8, 2017, after a long interruption, a continuous Talgo train has been running again between Sarajevo and Čapljina. A second pair of trains runs in the summer season. The trains only stop in Konjic and Mostar.

Accidents

On August 22, 2018, a freight train going to Sarajevo drove into an empty counter train at Jablanica station , which was waiting for the crossing on a siding. Two engine drivers were killed, one was seriously injured and the fourth was able to jump off immediately before the collision.

Security technology

Due to its construction in the 1960s, the line is equipped with track diagram signal boxes and an automatic line block with a dense block division. As a result of the Bosnian War, however , the automatic route block is practically continuously out of order in Bosnian territory, at many stations only the entry signals and the respective self-block signals in front of them are temporarily in operation as entry pre-signals. The geographically particularly difficult sections around Konjic with the descent into the Neretva Valley are an exception . The safety technology on the Croatian section between Metković and Ploče was largely restored.

gallery

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  Sarajevo Railway Station (2011)

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  Viaduct near Tarčin (around 1966)

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  Train in Ostrožac near Jablanica (1982)

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  Bridge over the Neretva south of Jablanica (2007)

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  Railway line along the Neretva between Jablanica and Mostar (2008)

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  Regional train crossing the Drežanka

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  Mostar Railway Station (2012)

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  Metković station (2009)

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  Passenger station Ploče (2009)

Web links

Commons : Sarajevo – Ploče railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sarajevo – Ploče on the Serbian-speaking forum “Forum ljubitelja železnica” with lots of photos

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} HŽ Infrastruktura doo: Izvješće o mreži 2014 . (PDF) In: hzinfra.hr. December 5, 2012, archived from the original on October 21, 2013 ; accessed on April 25, 2018 (Croatian, only via download). 
2. ^ Fritz Stöckl : Railways in Southeast Europe. Bohmann Verlag, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7002-0431-X , p. 236.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Ploče Railway. Elmar Oberegger, 2006, accessed on August 5, 2014 . 
4. ^ ^{A b c} Fritz Stöckl: Railways in Southeast Europe. Bohmann Verlag, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7002-0431-X , p. 231ff.
5. ↑ Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine: Infrastructure - Allowed speed. (No longer available online.) Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, archived from the original on January 16, 2016 ; accessed on August 6, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine: Infrastructure - Railway Categorization. (No longer available online.) Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; accessed on August 6, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine: From the history of the railway. (No longer available online.) Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, archived from the original on February 2, 2014 ; accessed on August 5, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ^ Fritz Stöckl: Railways in Southeast Europe. Bohmann Verlag, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7002-0431-X , p. 46.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Zoran Curić: Prometnogeografsko značenje luke Ploce. (PDF; 3.1 MB) Transport-geographical importance of the port of Ploče. In: Hrvatski geografski glasnik. September 1993, pp. 191-202 , accessed on August 5, 2014 (Croatian). 
10. ↑ Hrvatske Željeznice po: Vozni red 29.V.1994. - 24.IX.1994. Zagreb 1994.
11. ^ Željeznice Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine: Passenger Transport - International Transport. (No longer available online.) Željeznica Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 20, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ HŽ Putnički prijevoz doo: Vozni red 9.XII.2012. - 14.XII.2013. Zagreb 2012.
13. ↑ Red vožnje za 2013/2014 godinu u PDF formatu (timetable for 2013/2014) . (PDF) (No longer available online.) Željeznica Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; Retrieved on August 4, 2014 (Bosnian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ↑ Clear- cutting in Croatia. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 8-9 / 2014, Minirex, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 414.
15. ↑ Talgo trains run on the Sarajevo - Čapljina route. In Eisenbahn-Revue International, No. 8–9 / 2017, p. 410.
16. ^ Toma Bačić: Freight train collision in Bosnia. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , No. 10/2018, p. 533.